Terex AC 250-1 key to hospital project

The company supported Pittsburgh's power and industrial contractor, McKamish Inc, on the commission, which was carried out by the Dravosburg, PA brand of Anthony Crane.

Ron Shearer, account manager at Anthony Crane, explained: "The building was 157ft (47.9m) tall, and we had to reach 40ft over the rooftop.

"There were a number of picks to be made, of which the heaviest weighed approximately 6.8t."

Anthony Crane would normally enlist a high capacity all terrain crane with a luffing jib and full counterweight owing to the height of the building and the radius required to perform the lifts.

On this project however, work area confinements did not permit the assembly of the luffing jib for the crane, so only the main boom could be used.

"The crane had to be set up in a loading zone to eliminate lifting over the occupied portions of the hospital. The work area was extremely small and there was a sky bridge we had to work around that did not allow assembly of inserts or luffing jib," said Andrew Longacre, GSP, of Anthony Crane.

According to the company, the crane was required to work at a radius that would enable the boom to raise straight up and over the building without hitting the skybridge to make the HVAC equipment lifts and load the old pieces onto trucks.

The company's new crane addition offered the business the combination of power, main boom length and compact carrier size to handle the picks at Allegheny General Hospital.

David Naab, regional business manager for Terex Cranes, explained: "The AC 250-1 crane is one of the most compact six-axle cranes on the market and offers the most compact outrigger base and tail radius work area in its class.

"Yet it has 80-m main boom, which is exactly what Anthony Crane needed for this project."

The crane operator used the full 80 m of main boom to reach the 12.2m onto the building's roof to hoist the HVAC units and components away. This required an operating radius of more than 30.5m.
The AC 250-1 crane offers a 7.3t rated capacity when working at a 36.6tm radius with only 52.3t of counterweight."

Shearer added: "This allowed us to use only the main stack and not the winged weights to reduce the required swing room. Additionally, it saved us four loads and approximately $4,000 in shipping costs to and from the site."
Only the Terex AC 250-1 crane and 4 truckloads of counterweight and supporting equipment made the 20.2-km trip from its Dravosburg yard to the hospital's downtown Pittsburgh location.
Ray G. Anthony, president and CEO, concluded: "Where other models would've required inserts and/or a swing away jib, we were able to complete this job with only the main boom of the AC 250-1 crane.

"This was the best option both operationally and economically for us and the customer. We also sincerely appreciated the full support of the Terex sales and maintenance teams, as they spent countless hours with our operator and technicians to review every part of the crane and were present for the first series of jobs."